The Center for the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

Rice on the Road

Rice on the Road 2015

Sponsored by the Center for the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Division of Mission & Identity

The 2015 Rice Lecture Series will focus on Community Healing and Revitalization in the context of our neighboring Hill District community. The series will convene a range of university and community stakeholders to highlight and advance collaborative, cross-disciplinary work for social justice. Again this year we seek to extend the impact of the series through the Rice Fellows program, a university-community fellowship opportunity available to eligible Duquesne faculty, staff, and graduate students in concert with a community partner.

Past Events:

The Msgr. Rice Lecture Series took to the streets in 2013! We offered four community excursions, featuring mobile panels and on-site conversation with community leaders, residents, entrepreneurs, legislators, faculty, and students. Each excursion focused on a particular theme. A closing dialogue ended the series. The special role of community-engaged scholarship in a Spiritan context to encourage awareness, education, and responsible action for justice was discussed.

View a video compilation of our 2013 lecture series:

Monday, February 18th from 12-2pm in the Hill District: "Exploring Community Trauma: A Deliberative Dialogue"

Violence, poverty, homelessness, and discrimination are just some of the crises that affect communities. When these crises continue, sometimes for generations, individuals and whole communities can experience trauma that adversely affects health, safety, public education, and community vitality. This excursion to the Hill District will introduce the process of "deliberative dialogue." Participants will witness dialogue among community members, educators, counselors, and psychologists as they explore trauma-informed communities.

Monday, February 25th from 12-2pm in the Hill District: "Women Building Communities"

Women are leading critical efforts in communities where higher numbers of single black women are raising children, multi-generational families are necessary, and the school-to-jail pipeline is real. Join us for a conversation in the Hill District with members of Ujamaa, a cooperative of African, African American, and Afro-Caribbean women that work in the tradition of collective economics to support community vitality and entrepreneurship of local residents. The women will share stories of how living from an afro-centric perspective has allowed them to become successful business owners and to develop a tradition of economic sustainability for generations.

Terri Baltimore, Vice President for Neighborhood Development at Hill House and Ujamaa Board Member

Celeta Hickman, President Emeritus and Director of Arts and Agricultural Innovation at Ujamaa

LaKeisha Wolfe, Vice President and Director of Business Affairs and Cooperative Development at Ujamaa

Thursday, March 21st from 3-5pm in the Hill District: "August Wilson's Hill District"

August Wilson, a high school dropout born in the Hill District, became one of the Hill's most famous and influential cultural figures. Nine of the ten plays in his Pittsburgh cycle take place in the Hill and document the changes that took place there in the century about which he wrote. This tour of August Wilson's Hill District will feature locations in Wilson's life and plays that illuminate the spirit of the Hill as Wilson experienced and envisioned it.

Friday, March 22nd from 3-5pm in Hazelwood: "Educational Justice in the Hazelwood Context"

What happens when a community has no schools? For Hazelwood, just three miles from Duquesne, this is a reality. For eight years, Hazelwood youth have been bused beyond their community's borders; for the past five years, alternative charter schools have been denied access to the area. The long-term absence of neighborhood schooling is distressing as a matter of injustice. In that absence, grass-roots educational programming has developed. Is there a remedy to this situation? Why has this occurred in this particular neighborhood? Who holds the answers and solutions? Participants will have a brief tour of Hazelwood, followed by a panel conversation. This conversation is co-sponsored by the UCEA Center for Social Justice.